De Ketelaere is hot, the assist and play by KdB is pure class, game on Espana!

De Ketelaere at 41'

Belgium 1
Spain 1

First goal conceded by Spain in 650 minutes

The announcers said it was hot at SoFi because the roof traps the heat, though it's only 76F in Inglewood right now. What was the point of building a domed stadium in LA, where it might rain on average 1 or 2 weeks during the NFL season, and the roof doesn't help with the heat?

Doku needs support on the left, and Belgium should play the counter using him.

sluggo said:

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Cal88 said:

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sluggo said:

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Cal88 said:

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I wonder how Belgium will hold up to Spain tomorrow, they're hard to predict. Currently Belgium has scored the 3rd most goals with 13, one less than Argentina and 3 fewer than France (16, but with 1 extra game played). Norway is 4th with 11, Spain far behind in 13th place with only 9 goals scored.

Spain has not conceded a single goal though, France has conceded 2 (with one extra game), Argentina 5.

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They will be outclassed and barely touch the ball. It will be like when they played us but the opposite.

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Forecast high today in Inglewood at kickoff is 75F, maybe they will start Doku and KdB right off the bat, that's some powerful countering punch with service from Courtois, to KdB to JD... The Spaniards will dominate possession time but will have to work hard to score. Other than their games against Saudi and Austria, they have only scored 2 goals total vs Cape Verde, Uruguay and Portugal combined. I think it will be a close, exciting game today. Spain vs the other top teams in this competition lacks finishers, they have to pass their way into the goal.

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Their ball winner is Onana, who is a fantastic player. He ruptured his ACL against us, which is very sad. (Talk about how we would have been smoked even worse if he stayed healthy.) They still have Tielemans, but I am not sure he is up to this level. Neither Doku nor KDB are ball winners. It will be a long day. Spain is missing a striker, Torres is not very good. But they have won tournaments without one. They have big midfielders like Ruiz and Merino who they can bring in to imitate a striker, plus Oyarzabal is finishing well. Plus we have not had a signature Lamine Yamal game. 2-0.

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Hard to believe Yamal has only scored once in 4 1/2 games in this tournament, I guess he's getting marked tight.

Oh man, the Courtois injury sunk Belgium, that would have been an easy stop for him. I guess it sets up a great semi with France.

Upon further review of the first Spanish goal, Courtois might not have been 100%, very slow to recover after his first save and getting back in place to stop the rebound shot.

Goalie flubb

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🥇 Kansas City
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Another bad day for goaltenders. Norway this time

Prince Haakon looks a lot more nervous than when he was hanging out at the I-House pub...

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/norwegian-consulate-sf_crown-prince-haakon-visited-his-alma-mater-activity-7186235797090566144-ymhV

More fun with VAR. Looks like that ball hit something to me.

Before England’s goal in minute 45+2 against Norway, the sensor in the Connected Ball showed no peak in the 'heartbeat of the ball' when in the air, and therefore no evidence that the ball touched the overhead wire and changed the movement of the ball. pic.twitter.com/gYf9ukfveT

— FIFA Media (@fifamedia) July 11, 2026

That's the game we expected. England will be the weakest in the final 4 unless the Swiss pull the upset.

Vargas not starting for Switzerland, thought he had a good tournament, wonder if he's injured.

Hop Suisse!

England's man of the match against Norway pic.twitter.com/v8kmB6Pyor

— Troll Football Media (@TrollFootball2) July 11, 2026

Game on pendejos!!!

Cal88 said:

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Game on pendejos!!!

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Pendejos? About 20 pages back I mentioned that the Swiss were very good. I don't know the majority of their players, but every time I see them, they put on a strong performance.

I'm rooting for the Swiss if that wasn't clear enough.

VAR once again Player of the Game for Argentina...

Cal88 said:

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I'm rooting for the Swiss if that wasn't clear enough.

VAR once again Player of the Game for Argentina...

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Dumb rule, good call. If the ref had not given Paredes the yellow, which he clearly did not deserve, it would have been better. But the ref started us down the wrong road.

I will never not laugh at the Swiss coach looking like a late 70s drug lord.

If the Swiss can hold 10 more minutes, they will win on penalties, no pressure on them and they're cool customers.

This angle of Sørloth ignoring Haaland. The reaction from Haaland says it all man. He was frustrated and disappointed, just like the rest of us. pic.twitter.com/i1sf0SjAH7

— Geronimo Morgans (@GeronimoMorgans) July 12, 2026

Could an argument be made that Sorloth just didn't see Haaland?

He saw him and was tracking him but missed his passing window, too slow.

The Swiss would have probably held out without that second yellow card, they've left too much space for Argentina.

So the top 4 ranked teams are in the final 4 now...

Whoa, did you hear the post-game interviews after England-Norway? The English coach* (where's he from, Germany?), he says the team is able to play much better than they have been, Cut to Bellingham and he literally says "whatever". Rift there; I'm picking Argentina.



* "coach"... "manager"... whatever

PAC-10-BEAR said:

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This angle of Sørloth ignoring Haaland. The reaction from Haaland says it all man. He was frustrated and disappointed, just like the rest of us. pic.twitter.com/i1sf0SjAH7

— Geronimo Morgans (@GeronimoMorgans) July 12, 2026

Could an argument be made that Sorloth just didn't see Haaland?

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There were 3 other people on that side of the pitch and only one of them was wearing a bright red kit, so no it wasn't that. He was just selfish.

Argentina reaching the semi final

pic.twitter.com/w21jNvZPts

— Troll Football (@TrollFootball) July 12, 2026

tequila4kapp said:

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PAC-10-BEAR said:

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Could an argument be made that Sorloth just didn't see Haaland?

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There were 3 other people on that side of the pitch and only one of them was wearing a bright red kit, so no it wasn't that. He was just selfish.

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Goodbye 🇺🇸 It’s been emotional! pic.twitter.com/w5ZBRv3pWS

— Erling Haaland (@Erling) July 13, 2026

I noticed in the Belgium-Spain game Belgium was playing defensively almost exactly how they played us. They pressed most of the field, but it was usually a soft press, allowing the opponent to make a mistake. Spain beat it passing and dribbling. They occasionally lost the ball, but not very often. Now Spain is the best in the world at controlling the ball, but we have to get better. I think we need to play Gio Reyna in midfield despite his other flaws because he is our only player that is press resistant at the level of the Spanish players. I don't think we can afford Tyler Adams and his limited offense in a tough game.

Genuinely the best video to ever exist man, actually never gets old, I’m in stitches every time pic.twitter.com/fPacpkLvn1

— joe (@JoeDB__) July 12, 2026

Game on wrong channel at England fan zone. Classic

I am really sick of all the Messi Messi Messi stuff. I really hope England eliminates Argentina.

It's coming home!

(France says "not so fast")

Regarding USA loss to Belgium:

I thought we got outcoached, for starters. At the very beginning of the game, Belgium obtained possession and instead of pressing forward, they passed back to GK Courtois and the Centerbacks in order to digest what the US were going to do. And what I saw was that we were NOT going to press, but sit back with a high line. This placed all our players in the middle 25% of the field, allowing open space over our back line.
It happened over and over again, and Courtois would hit the ball deep for breaks. Belgium would obtain possession by pressing us all over the field, and then start over by passing back to Courtois.
I guess that points to a talent gap, too. Why were they able to obtain possession midfield and yet we were scarred to try to do the same to them?
The game was over in the first 10 minutes.

concordtom said:

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Regarding USA loss to Belgium:

I thought we got outcoached, for starters. At the very beginning of the game, Belgium obtained possession and instead of pressing forward, they passed back to GK Courtois and the Centerbacks in order to digest what the US were going to do. And what I saw was that we were NOT going to press, but sit back with a high line. This placed all our players in the middle 25% of the field, allowing open space over our back line.
It happened over and over again, and Courtois would hit the ball deep for breaks. Belgium would obtain possession by pressing us all over the field, and then start over by passing back to Courtois.
I guess that points to a talent gap, too. Why were they able to obtain possession midfield and yet we were scarred to try to do the same to them?
The game was over in the first 10 minutes.

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I think they surprised us by sitting their older stars (like De Bruyne) and instead going with a starting lineup that prioritized speed and possession in midfield. The US probably expected to be able to use their speed and relative youth to win possession and maintain pressure (in a similar way to how we beat Paraguay/Australia/Bosnia) but Belgium flipped that right away. We couldn't hold on to the ball, which then exposed our leaky defense with Ream and Freese at the back. Might have been able to keep the game close and adjust to these tactics, but mistakes on defense meant too many goals were conceded and there wasn't much chance of a comeback.

It was a smart move by Belgium and something that a team with greater depth can do. The USA doesn't necessarily have the personnel to play different styles as effectively, though IMO Poch had us playing the right style for the players we have.

Yeah, we got blown away in every aspect.
But it was notable and surprising to see them pull ball back to GK, examine us, and process - time and again!

sycasey said:

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concordtom said:

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Regarding USA loss to Belgium:

I thought we got outcoached, for starters. At the very beginning of the game, Belgium obtained possession and instead of pressing forward, they passed back to GK Courtois and the Centerbacks in order to digest what the US were going to do. And what I saw was that we were NOT going to press, but sit back with a high line. This placed all our players in the middle 25% of the field, allowing open space over our back line.
It happened over and over again, and Courtois would hit the ball deep for breaks. Belgium would obtain possession by pressing us all over the field, and then start over by passing back to Courtois.
I guess that points to a talent gap, too. Why were they able to obtain possession midfield and yet we were scarred to try to do the same to them?
The game was over in the first 10 minutes.

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I think they surprised us by sitting their older stars (like De Bruyne) and instead going with a starting lineup that prioritized speed and possession in midfield. The US probably expected to be able to use their speed and relative youth to win possession and maintain pressure (in a similar way to how we beat Paraguay/Australia/Bosnia) but Belgium flipped that right away. We couldn't hold on to the ball, which then exposed our leaky defense with Ream and Freese at the back. Might have been able to keep the game close and adjust to these tactics, but mistakes on defense meant too many goals were conceded and there wasn't much chance of a comeback.

It was a smart move by Belgium and something that a team with greater depth can do. The USA doesn't necessarily have the personnel to play different styles as effectively, though IMO Poch had us playing the right style for the players we have.

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As I mentioned a few posts back, I think Belgium did not play any differently against us than they did against Spain. They pressed most of the field, but it was only enough to make us work, not a ruthless press. But we failed to break it because of some combination of not being good enough and nerves. We brought in Reyna to start the second half. He is our best press breaker, and we were having success with him before Freese's blunder ended the game. We ended up with 56% possession to their 44% possession. But we did little with that possession.

It is typical to pass backwards after winning the ball because that is the easy pass. That is something every team does, so it does not mean anything that they did it.

I believe Belgium did not start DeBruyne to save his legs for their next game. I think that is the same reason they did not start Doku. Doku was running all over the field against Spain, attacking and then running back to cover Yamine Lamal. He is a monster. I don't think they changed strategy but rather did not take us seriously. And they were right.

A "high line" means far from the goal. Do you mean a low line? I would have to watch again, which would be torture, but I don't think we pulled back our defense, just moved back as they moved past us.

One thing to notice is that most teams play a 4-4-2 (from back to front) on defense. So the press starts with two guys, which should be easy to pass around. It gets going when there are "triggers," such as passes to the sideline (the sideline is like an extra defender so it is much easier to press there than the middle of the field). So they may have shredded us before we got the heavy pressing triggers. That might be why you thought we were not pressing.

Quick Semifinal Preview:

Spain v France. They are the two most talented teams by far. France has the best athletes, with Dembele winning the world player of the year last year and Mbappe maybe winning it this year (and definitely should have won it many previous years, he has been the best for awhile but his teams have not done so well). They have two dominant center backs in Saliba (Arsenal) and Upemecano (Bayern). They should win this game and the whole tournament. But they have some weakness:
1) Their coach Deschamps like to play a slow tempo, which is crazy
2) Their #10 (attacking center mid) Olise is not a great passer and should probably play another position
3) Their left back Digne is just okay and must face Lamine Yamal
4) Their keeper Maignan is not top tier.

Spain has the best ball control and passing of any team. But they have the following weaknesses:
1) They play Rodrigo (Rodri) over Pedri, which is a joke if you watch them regularly. Rodri plays the center midfield Busquets maestro position of neither attacking nor defending. This is an old-fashioned style of play and hurts both the offense and defense.
2) Their only real striker is Ferran Torres who is average.
3) They are not nearly as fast as France.
4) Their goalie Simon has been much too eager coming out of the nets and made a few mistakes.
On the other hand, Nico Williams, who plays left wing to Yamal's right wing, came back for a few minutes last game and probably can play 45. He is dynamic and having two such dynamic players changes everything.

Last time they played it was 5-4 Spain. I see 2-1 Spain.

The other semi is to find an opponent for France or Spain. I don't really care, but I think it will be England 2-1 because they have a better bench. That has been the key to their tournament.

I remember seeing the passes back to Courtois, USA forwards came as far 10-15 yards from the 18. And waited. Both sides looked at each other. And our defense as that time was at the bottom of the center circle. This, a high line.

It happened over and over. Courtois saw the gap between back of our line and our GK and punted long. He kicked it further than expected and this caused us scrambling backwards.

Nice preview. Thx.
I see France over England in the final

concordtom said:

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I remember seeing the passes back to Courtois, USA forwards came as far 10-15 yards from the 18. And waited. Both sides looked at each other. And our defense as that time was at the bottom of the center circle. This, a high line.

It happened over and over. Courtois saw the gap between back of our line and our GK and punted long. He kicked it further than expected and this caused us scrambling backwards.

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I don't totally understand but I will focus on your second paragraph. If you are pressing your back line will play high and there is a gap between the defenders and the GK. In previous games we were winning like 90% of those headers. If he goes long enough to get in the gap and we don't win a header, the defenders have to recover or the keeper has to sweep away the ball. Freese is not great with his feet, hence the third goal. But more typically, they were shredding our defense. We had no answer for DeKetelaere, a player that I have never seen before but is tremendous. Dest was particularly bad on defense. His time starting should be over with Gozo taking his place. This may take a couple years, but I think it will happen.